Waters ‘Eager’ for Ethics Trial to Get Under Way

Rep. Maxine Waters offered an aggressive public defense Friday on charges that she violated House rules, and she called for the House ethics committee to move quickly on her looming ethics trial.

“I am indeed eager to be able to have an opportunity to present my case, and that is why I have requested the standards committee schedule a hearing as soon as possible,” the California Democrat said at a press conference. “Unfortunately, the committee has not yet specified a date for a hearing on this matter, and given the Congressional schedule, it is possible that no hearing would be held for months, even after the November elections.”

Waters faces charges from a House ethics subcommittee that she violated the chamber’s rules over allegations her staff took active steps to secure federal support for a bank in which Waters and her husband held hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock.

Read more: (Jennifer Yachnin, “Waters ‘Eager’ for Ethics Trial to Get Under Way,” Roll Call, 08/13/2010)